6 Reasons Why You Don't Need the New iPod Shuffle

People have been oohed and ahhed by the new iPod Shuffle but I certainly have no intention on ever using it. Here's why:

6. The battery life is worse.

With all the new useless features, it appears that Apple has sacrificed one very useful one, battery life. You'd expect the designers to easily have increased this, especially with the iPod Shuffle that doesn't support video or any screen capabilites.

5. You can only use Apple's earphones

And even Steve Jobs would probably admit that these aren't exactly the best quality. However, these are the only ones programmed to work with the Shuffle so if you break them (very likely to happen), you can't just go into an old shelf and find new ones to keep listening: You'll have to instead wait until next Saturday to go to Best Buy to get a new set.

4. Small = breakable + losable

Apple describes their latest device as "durable" with it's "anodized aluminum case" (what the hell?) but that's pretty hard to believe when the thing's not even as wide or thick as a key. Plus, it doesn't really matter what it's made out of once it falls out of the tiny whole in your backpack or that little part that you just don't bother to zip up.

3. Much more advanced iPods

With the new iPod Nano, iPod Touch and iPhone, I don't see much of a point of downgrading to a measly Shuffle, even in these times. Shuffles don't have cover flow, a screen, FM tuners, screens, applications, e-mail or wi-fi.

2. Unimpressive new features

Let's see what they've put in. A new colour (black), a few more playlists, a new and improved on-off switch. Sure the storage is pretty good but as I have demonstrated, the tininess might not be.

1. VoiceOver; Apple's newest crappy idea

Now let's talk about the robotic, monotone voice that is customized to whether you have a PC or Mac. This is supposed to tell you the songs and playlists but it does start to get annoying listening to the poorly pronounced words every single day. Also, unless you download random songs, you'll probably know most of what's on your iPod and don't need variations of Microsoft Sam telling you what they are. And if you really need a friend, try this.